Rights body members visit Australia
JAKARTA (JP): Four members of the National Commission on Human Rights have gone to Canberra for a week to tell their Australian counterparts about their work and Indonesia's human rights program.
Led by the commission deputy chairman Miriam Budiardjo, the delegation left Monday; although the official visit began yesterday and will end July 2, according to Antara.
The visit was arranged by Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
Marzuki Darusman, Clementino Dos Reis Amaral, Soegiri and Miriam are expected to meet Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Federal Attorney General Daryl Williams.
They are also expected to meet Minister of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Philip Ruddock, Commission on Aborigines chief Gatjil Djekurrua, human rights campaigners -- Chris Sidoti, Bill Barker, Pip Dargan, Margie Cook, Robert McCorquodale -- and Harold Crouch of the Australian National University.
Next Tuesday, the delegation is to attend a conference, organized by the Australian human rights commission, to discuss international and domestic "instruments of human rights," racial discrimination and other issues.
The conference will also discuss proposals for cooperation between Australia's and Indonesia's rights bodies.
Earlier this week, Australian Ambassador to Indonesia John McCarthy acknowledged that the human rights record in East Timor was improving.
McCarthy said this during a meeting Monday with the chairman of the Indonesian rights commission's East Timor office, Alex Refialy, in the provincial capital of Dili.
McCarthy had been accompanied by the embassy's political affairs secretary Bassin Blazey, Antara reported.
Rafiely said he had told his guests that human rights cases in East Timor were handled by the commission in cooperation with the police, prosecutors' office, provincial administration and Armed Forces.
"The commission's local office is acting only as a bridge between the public and law enforcers," he said. "We don't solve cases, but forward them to the authorized agencies."
Rafiely acknowledged that residents had complained that they were scared of reporting to the commission's office because it was near the military headquarters.
"There's not yet any directive (from the commission in Jakarta) to relocate the office," he said.
He conceded that many people chose to complain, instead, to the Dili diocese's Commission for Justice and Peace. "But the rights commission has always worked with the diocese in handling problems," he said. (swe)